For many years, boxes have been erected from blanks which are die-cut and scored so that the blanks may be folded and interlocked to form the individual walls of the box. These blanks may be manually folded. However, blanks which must be folded a number of times are often difficult to manipulate manually by a single person. Hence, apparatuses have been developed to conduct the folding process of the blanks.
Automated box forming and packing apparatuses have been developed to form blanks into boxes and to pack the box with articles, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,566,755. However, these types of apparatuses are inappropriate where space is limited and it is desired to form boxes occasionally as the need arises, for example within a retail store wherein the blanks are stored flat, to conserve space and erected into boxes only upon the purchase of merchandise. Additionally, as these types of apparatuses are typically built to form boxes as quickly as possible, they are typically expensive, complicated and difficult to use, and thus ill-suited for individual store use.
Automated box forming apparatuses have also been developed which form only the box, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,101,653, 3,913,466, 3,975,994 and 5,184,998. Here again, however, the apparatuses are quite large and complicated to use, and thus ill-suited for individual store use.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for a simple and compact apparatus for erecting boxes from blanks. It is to the provision of such therefore that the present invention is primarily directed.